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Saturday, April 30, 2016

After reading Jennifer Jones' #AtoZChallenge blog post about Yarrawonga the other day I started singing the chorus of a song that I learnt over 40 years ago and I just couldn't get it out of my head, it became an annoying flea in my ear.

Mr Google helped me find the lyrics for "I'm going back again to Yarrawonga"here, and what I discovered was that I only knew the chorus. The original words and music can be seen here in Trove on the National Library of Australia website.The song by Neil McBeath, a corporal in the AIF in WWItold the story of a Digger who after spending time at the front was returned to Australia. After reading the lyrics I thought it appropriate to bring it to your attention in this ANZAC week.An early version of the song can be heard by following a link on this page: http://alldownunder.com/australian-music-songs/back-to-yarrawonga.htmSlim Dusty used perform the chorus of this song but I much prefer the earlier recording.

Friday, April 29, 2016

My current state could be described as "bubbling over with enthusiasm".
A few nights ago I received an email inviting me to take on another volunteering opportunity. It is the sort of volunteering role for which one doesn't volunteer but to which one is invited. I was tickled pink to be asked to take on this role through which I can contribute to genealogical education in Australia.

After an appropriate cooling off period of 12 hours I enthusiastically accepted the role which will see me working with an experienced team of genies.

I'm not sure when I can tell you what I'm doing but I can tell that this old girl is looking forward to her new 'job'.

Congratulations to all my genimates who have stuck with the #AtoZChallenge. Our penultimate posts should appear today and tomorrow we reach the finish line.

It seems like an eon away that I read so many ANZAC posts commemorating the brave men and women from our families but it was just earlier this week. Watch out for the list of those who responded to the Trans-Tasman Challenge next Monday on the Kintalk blog.

Apologies for my lack of comments on your blog posts, there have been so many recently with the various challenges that have been running that I've barely had time to read them all. I accidentally deleted quite a few from my History-Australia RSS folder so those have gone unread. I really appreciate the facility on Wordpress blogs where one can quickly add a blue star to a post to let the blogger know that you have visited. Have you enabled this on your Wordpress blog?

Sunday, April 24, 2016

It was when I read this newspaper article from 1942 I learnt that Mr GeniAus' Great-Uncle Herb, John Herbert Gillespie (1893-1964), was a former boxer. Herb Gillespie fought under the name Herb Sullivan.

Prior to enlisting in 1917 Herb worked as an Engineer's Machinist, his next of kin was Violet (nee Baker) whom he had married in Sydney on December 4, 1915. A search on Trove indicates that Herb spent a lot of time in the boxing ring from around 1913 and turned Pro in 1915.

Herb was able to pursue his interest in boxing on the journey to England in January 1918 on Miltiades. He recounted some experiences in a letter home.

Herb was one of the lucky ones as he saw little action on the Front. After arriving in England he undertook some training and became a Physical Instructor for the forces. His background in the boxing ring and level of fitness would have equipped Herb for this role

Finally in July 1918 Herb was shipped from Southampton to Rouelles, France. As a member of the 13th Battalion Field Artillery and then the 5th Field Artillery Brigade Herb would have seen action on the Western Front until the time of the Armistice.

Portion of Herb's service record Source: NAA: B2455, GILLESPIE J

It is not known how Herb sustained a fractured fibula but this injury in December caused him to be sent to hospital in England and repatriated to Australia. An Australian sporting newspaper details some of Herb's boxing activities during his time in England. Herb was fortunate that most of his battles were fought in the boxing ring against a known opponent.

Friday, April 22, 2016

I am feeling a lot calmer this week as I have completed two challenges that ate into my geneatime. I actually managed to read most of the posts in my RSS feed this week, I hope you find something of value in my offerings.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Thanks to my friend Carmel I've been having fun with Photofunia an app she suggested in her post yesterday on the A-Z Blogging Challenge. Carmel has suggested some excellent apps in her series of post, I suggest you pay a visit.

My reward for finishing a couple of geneachallenges was some time to play with the app. Following are a few the images I created.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

I am feeling rather chuffed as I have just completed two geneachallenges.

Firstly I have completed (and enjoyed) the Researching your family history course presented for Futurelearn by The University of Strathclyde.

Secondly I have finished penning my posts for the A-Z Blogging Challenge on my CurryAus blog. I feel a great sense of satisfaction at being able to research and schedule my posts twelve days prior to the end of the challenge.

As it's Tuesday I consulted Trove to find some snippets on satisfaction.

Friday, April 15, 2016

Another week as a participant in the A-Z Blogging Challenge has flown by. I found some new blogs, some of which I may follow and some which I won't visit again. It is worth visiting the list of participants to see the range of ordinary and unusual blogging topics there.

A few of my selections this week come from the challenge and quite a few from libraries and institutions.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

It has just dawned on me why I am finding it such an onerous task. Actually my mate Fran alluded to this in her challenge post today.

I chose to write about individuals from my surname study and each entry required quite a bit of Troveing. It has taken me hours to research and put together each post. While it has helped me progress my Surname Study it hasn't helped my mental state. Next year if I participate I will prepare my posts well in advance and at a leisurely pace and I will select a topic that doesn't require too much research.

To date I have scheduled posts to the letter S and hope to work on T today but, as I have just been notified that my L post is a wordless wonder, I must go and find where Lilian is hiding.

Monday, April 11, 2016

My parents, however were both from families of five so I have dug into the family archives to find some pics of their sibling groups.

From 1947 we have My Mum, her Dad and four Sisters. Mum, Elsie, the eldest of the girls is the sole surviving sibling.

L-R Kathleen, Eileen, Frank, Mary, Elsie and Lilian Duncan

Finding an early photo of my Dad and his siblings was more of a challenge. I found one taken with their mother at my wedding in 1970. Allan, the eldest child in the family is my Dad. I am now the oldest living person in the Curry clan.

L-R Kevin, Mary (nee Tierney), Allan, Kathleen, Mary and Thomas Curry

I was blessed to have so many loving Aunts and Uncles who spoilt me rotten.

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Some weeks just get away from me and I have to be late or miss my regular post. The commencement of school holidays and a flurry of living family activities took precedence and, although I had gathered a collection of posts to share, I had no time to share my Gems on Friday.

With quite a number of geneabloggers participating in the 2016 Blogging from A-Z Challenge there has been an inflated number of posts coming into my RSS feed. I have met several new bloggers whose works have been added to that RSS list. I have joined the challenge on my CurryAus blog and hope to have the stamina to see it through!

It's Sunday morning and my guests have departed so I have time to catch up on geneactivities. I hope you find something of interest in my selections.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

We followed this up with an inspection of Great-Grandpa's military medals.

Then later when Grandson was scavenging in a coat cupboard he found his 4x Great-Grandfather's shillalegh which we were able to relate to the Irish side of the family previously found on the family website.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

When I am selecting posts to share in my weekly GeniAus Gems post on this blog one of the first things I do is to try and establish who has written whichever post I am recommending. This is sometimes quite difficult to ascertain.

During my training as a librarian years ago we were warned about Anonymous works and were counselled to approach these with a degree of scepticism. We were taught was that, during the process of evaluating a work, we had to establish the authority of the person who was the author of that work. When I am reading blogs I'm surprised at how difficult some bloggers make it for me to discover their identuty.

I know there are some reasons like child protection, witness protection programs etc for people to remain anonymous but I don't think all the anonymous bloggers I come across are in this category.

Do you like to know who has written what you are reading?

As it's Trove Tuesday I decided to see what articles about Anonymous I could find on Trove so here goes.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

One of the first messages I read on Facebook this morning was from my genimate Shelleywho was excited about the latest upgrade, 6.2, to our favourite genealogy software package, Family Historian. Shelley's glee was soon matched by Colin Spencer who also shared the news.

Not to be outdone, when I had finished my morning chores I set about downloading the Family Historian upgrade and it took ages, I usually don't download upgrades so promptly so I was keen to get this upgrade as were probably many other FH users.

The FH site told me "Users of version 6 can now download a free upgrade to Family Historian 6.2 (the full 3-digit version number is 6.2.0). The new version adds automatic record matching and ‘hints’ for Findmypast databases. To learn more, see Automatic Internet Data Matching".

Well I have a sub to Findmypast that I don't use a lot so I thought I'd give this a try. Family Historian already had data matching with MyHeritage but, as I only recently won a sub to that site at Rootstech, I hadn't set up this facility.

After taking ages to download I installed the upgrade in a minute or two and following the instructions from Family Historian I set up data matching. It took me a while to get the hang of using the tool and I had to read the instructions (something I don't often do) but now I have it down pat.

One must use the Focus Window view in Family Historian to see the matches. A little green icon in the bottom right hand corner of a person's name indicates there are matches available.

Family Historian - Focus Window View

When one hovers over the green icon a little box appears indicating how many matches have been found in each database. Selecting one of the databases opens a web search window within Family Historian where one can view and accept or reject the suggestions. One can use an external browser which is the way I started but I found the inbuilt browser easier for me.

Although one can't directly import into Family Historian I am not perturbed, it makes me stop and think before hastily adding something. One does not have to type data into FH (which is a boon for this hunter and pecker) one can use copy and paste or drag and drop to move data from the Web Browser into Family Historian. I have added quite a few records to my CurryAus study database via this method today. Of course I am concentrating on indexes at My Heritage and giving the user submitted trees a wide berth!

Am I happy - You bet your life I am. I am sure that after some more tweaking by the developers this feature will become even easier to use.

My genealogy software package has become even more useful and I am about to get more value from two of the databases to which I have access.

As participants in the challenge we are encouraged to follow and comment on other people's blogs. Of course I am following my genimates' blogs but I am also committing to following these newtome blogs.

Saturday, April 2, 2016

So.....was your choice of ONS host price-based, or do all the ONS websites do basically the same thing as far as support?

My choice of The Surname Society was not just cost based but that was a big factor. The cost to register each surname study with the Guild is 12GBP on top of your subscription, there is no extra cost with The Surname Society. I had been a member of the Guild for a number of years but realised that The Surname Society was a better fit for my purposes.

I did not need a body to host my study I needed somewhere to list, describe and promote my study. The Surname Society provides that facility for me.

The Guild may provide more resources but, as The Surname Society is new, it has fewer resources but the collection is growing. There is immediate help available via the Surname Society Facebook Members' Group.

Have you advertised the study in any magazines or any online methods?

I initially advertised my study via several social media channels and received some helpful responses from genies with Curry connections. I have a Wordpress blog/website for the study which I hope will act as "Name Bait" for anyone doing searches on the internet. Having my blog preserved on The National Library of Australia's Pandora Archive will ensure that the Curry stories are preserved. I have added the Curry surname in Australia to a few Members' Interests lists.

Because I am still at the data gathering stage and there are lots of resources, both print and online with Curry information available, I don't see the need to promote widely yet. I need to organise the mountain of data that I have recorded before I start sharing. I've yet to decide how and if I will publish the database I am developing.

With a less common surname with fewer resources available I would probably promote to find connections at an earlier stage. For this I would consider non-genie print publications like major newspaper RSVP columns and any magazines that would provide free or low-cost advertisements.

Have you written to all the Curry names in the White Pages (for eg) to attract other family members who might have information?

With a less common surname with fewer resources available I would probably contact potential family members via the White Pages etc. but for the foreseeable future I will deal with the list of resources I have and organise the information I have gathered from them. There is so much on Trove that I don't think I'll get much further than the organising stage in my lifetime, that is why I chose the CurryAus blog for my A-Z blogging challenge.

What are you hoping to find out from other Curry family members? In my case I'd like to fill in some blanks back in Ireland, just before the Catholic records start.

Before I move offshoreI want to sort out the various Curry families in Australia and record their stories so that they are not forgotten. Another reason I chose The Surname Society to register my study is because their rules aren't as prescriptive as the Guild (although I think the Guild has loosened up recently).

Are you combining your ONS with any DNA testing?

Not yet but definitely on the cards. I found my first potential Curry match just this week and have a few possibles who also have Curry in their trees - I may yet just find some Irish cousins..

Friday, April 1, 2016

As I have been reading the posts in my RSS feed this week I realised just how many of my geneablogging mates from downunder are participating in the 2016 A-Z Blogging Challenge.

I had avoided this activity in previous years but this morning I just couldn't help myself, I didn't want to be a wallflower. I'm a party animal and just had to join my mates. I decided that I would give my CurryAus Surname Study a boost by nominating that blog for the challenge.

What made the difference was the very first piece of advice on the challenge sign-up page "We recommend short posts", that sounded like me "short and sometimes sweet".

Easter and living family got in the way of my blog reading this week ..... but I wouldn't have it any other way. Nevertheless I still managed to read all the Australian Genealogy blog posts in my RSS feed and have noted Gems to share.

Easter Distraction

I am feeling on the outer today when I see how many of my genimates are participating in the April A-Z Blogging Challenge. The day is still young and, if I can come up with an original idea, I may still join in. I look forward to having my RSS feed inundated with all of your posts, best wishes to all of the participants.